The first eight verses of Chapter 21 serve as both a conclusion to what has been going on so far in Revelation and a beginning of the final two chapters. Six times in chapters 19 and 20 John uses the words “Then I saw.”  Now for the seventh time, beginning in Chapter 21, he uses the same words, “Then I saw,” to introduce what is set before him: “A new heaven and a new earth.” All that has been building in chapters 19 and 20 (and, indeed throughout Revelation) is now brought to completion with John’s vision of the new creation.

It is not too much of a stretch to say that the key idea of this passage, and all the way through to the end of the book, may be summed up in one word: “new.” We are introduced to the new creation (vs. 1) and a new Jerusalem (vs. 2). The former things pass away so that God declares, “Behold, I am making all things new” (vs. 5).

Notice that at the end of the age we are not being brought up to heaven, but rather heaven is coming down to earth. The old will be entirely displaced by the new. Think of this as not necessarily a total annihilation of the old creation but an act of Divine purification, a complete renewal from top to bottom to the extent that everything in the entire cosmos, including its inhabitants, will be new. We are not God’s partners in renewing all things. This is his work entirely to be done at the end of the age.

In the end, John’s vision tells us very little about what the new creation will look like. Perhaps this is because it will be very much like the first creation except without sin, decay, and death. It will be even better than Eden because there will be no possibility of sin, decay, or death. We are inheriting a truly new creation. John’s vision places the emphasis on the character and experience of those who will be welcomed into this new eternal home. For them there will be no more dying or weeping, nor anymore pain “for the former things have passed away.”